I have been baking all my kids’ snacks from the age of 6 months and still now, like my Sweet Potato Baby Pancakes, Overnights Oats For Baby, or Baby Teething Crackers. After all, the best way to offer nutrient-dense food to babies and kids is to spend a few minutes in the kitchen. Plus, baking your homemade baby cookies or baby pancakes is also:
Easy and educational – this recipe is great to involve small kids in the kitchen as it involves simple actions. Cheap Allergy-friendly – no eggs, no dairy, no nuts and perfect for adding to kid or even grown-up lunch boxes. As a mum, I love to reuse baby recipes for my older kids, and these always are a win. Nutritious
You won’t need store-bought toddler cookies after trying these ones!
What Are Baby Cookies?
Baby cookies are healthy, soft, and chewy cookies offered to babies from 6 months of age as a first baby-led weaning food. They are naturally sweetened with fruit puree and often made of healthy flour like oats and added vegetables.
Ingredients and Substitutions
These baby cookies are very easy to make with only 5 ingredients. All you need are:
Ripe Bananas – The riper, the sweeter the cookies will be. Since these are sugar-free baby cookies, using ripe bananas adds more flavor and sweetness. You can also use half mashed banana and half homemade baby pumpkin puree Almond Milk or any other milk you like, such as coconut milk, soy milk, or breast milk. You can also swap milk for water if preferred. Homemade Oat Flour – All-purpose flour works very well here, but it makes the cookies chewier and heavier. I recommend oat flour for the best soft and chewy baby cookie easy to eat without teeth. But you can also use homemade oat flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour. Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats or quick oats – I personally prefer quick oats for smaller kids because it has a thinner texture. Grated Carrots – you can also use shredded zucchini or a combination of both.
These are the main ingredients you need to make these baby banana cookies. Then, you can be creative and add some flavor or some baking powder to add some fluffier texture.
Add-Ons
Baking Powder – this adds a little fluff to the cookies, but it’s barely noticeable. So for babies who need no additives, you can skip it. Cinnamon – Cinnamon is fine for babies as long as they’ve been introduced to solids. Sweetener – From 12 months, it’s safe to add some sweeteners to your kids’ food. If your bananas are not ripe enough to provide the sweetness you expect, then add 1-2 tablespoons of unrefined sugar like coconut sugar or a few stevia drops to the batter. Vanilla extract
How To Make Baby Cookies
Flavors
You can use this baby cookie recipe to create a range of flavorsome cookies for your toddler to snack on. For example, you can add to the batter 1/4 cup of:
Dark chocolate chips Shredded coconut Dried fruits – like finely chopped apricots or raisins
Or you can also:
Swap bananas with mashed sweet potato puree. Boost the plant-based proteins of your cookies by stirring 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or almond butter along with the mashed bananas.
Serving Suggestions
These are oatmeal banana carrot cookies. It means they contain all the nutrients that babies and toddlers need in the morning, including:
Fiber and protein from oat and wheat flour. Vitamins from fruits and vegetables. Calcium, especially if you used calcium-fortified plant-based milk or breast milk.
You can offer these cookies any time of the day as an on-the-go snack. Small kids love snacking, and I like to see snacks are tiny healthy meals. These baby banana carrot cookies are definitely one of them.
Storage
These baby cookies store very well in the fridge in an airtight box for up to 4 days. Since the recipe serves 12 cookies, you may prefer to store them for longer. In this case, I recommend freezing your baby banana cookies in zip-lock bags. Then, thaw the cookies at room temperature 3 hours before serving.
More Baby-Led Weaning Recipes
I love to share my baby-led weaning recipes with you here to help you bake nourishing and allergy-friendly baby food. Below are great recipes for baby-led weaning that you may want to try. All are egg-free, dairy-free, and vegan-friendly baby food:
